New Delhi, Oct. 29 -- The country's largest airline IndiGo on Thursday reported narrowing its loss to Rs 1,879.1 crore in Q2 FY27 as increased fuel costs and rupee depreciation roiled profitability.

The airline's CEO Willie Walsh also indicated that airfares are likely to remain elevated due to the steep rise in fuel prices.

The airline, which had a loss of Rs 2,582.1 crore in the 2025 September quarter, will remain focused on short-haul operations and exercise a prudent approach on capacity amid the overall challenges in the industry.

In Q2 FY27, the total income of InterGlobe Aviation, the parent of IndiGo, rose to Rs 24,311.9 crore from Rs 19,599.5 crore in the year-ago period, according to a regulatory filing.

However, total expenses in the latest September quarter surged to Rs 26,188.4 crore, with aircraft fuel expenses surging 67.20 per cent to Rs 9,966.8 crore. The airline said exceptionally high fuel costs and rupee depreciation weighed on profitability besides continued geopolitical turmoil.

In the 2026 September quarter, capacity was reduced by 1 per cent to 40.8 billion ASKs (Available Seat Kilometres) while the number of passengers flown decreased by 4.7 per cent to 27.5 million.

For the December quarter, IndiGo said the capacity in terms of ASKs is expected to grow by early single digits as compared to the year-ago period.

The airline's net loss, excluding forex, amounted to Rs 723.7 crore whereas it was a net profit, excluding forex, of Rs 103.9 crore in the year-ago period.

"For the quarter, our passenger ticket revenues were Rs 206,522 million, an increase of 29.3 per cent, and ancillary revenues were Rs 24,809 million, an increase of 15.9 per cent compared to the same period last year," the release said.

In the September quarter, the airline's yield increased by 34.3 per cent to Rs 6.30. Generally, yield refers to average revenue earned by an airline for each passenger.

The airline has a very efficient cost base and strong liquidity that provides it a lot of options to deal with higher operating expenses, Walsh said.

"We have very strong liquidity, and that gives us a lot of options that many of our competitors won't have available to them," he added.

Amid rising air ticket prices, Walsh stressed that the critical issue is to balance the fares against the load factor.

"Airlines have a number of levers that we can pull. We can focus on yield, we can focus on load factor, but in effect the critical issue is to focus on the combination of those two to maximise the revenue that we can generate," he said.

"Obviously, we want to try and minimise the increase in fares that we are encountering. It has always been the case that India stimulates a lot of additional growth through the low fare that IndiGo has been able to offer in the market. "But we have no choice but to look to increase fares in an effort to offset the very significant increase that we have seen in the fuel bill," Walsh said during the virtual briefing.

"I think we're looking at a period of elevated fuel costs for some time to come. So we'll keep all of the measures that we've taken under review and take responsible and prudent action," Walsh said.

Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from Millennium Post.